Keeper of the Shadows

chapter 16



Sailor drove Barrie’s car home, claiming she shouldn’t drive “in her state,” and Rhiannon drove her own Volvo. They arrived at the House of the Rising Sun within seconds of each other and got out of the cars to stand in the drive, in the jasmine-scented moonlight beside the pool. The dogs, Sailor’s Jonquil and Rhiannon’s Wizard, bounded up joyfully to greet their mistresses.

“Thank God that’s over,” Sailor said as she wrestled Jonquil onto the pavement.

Barrie shook her head. “It’s not over. It was a warning.”

“But to whom?” Rhiannon asked, as she fended off her enormous Wizard. The three cousins and the dogs drifted toward the pool, which glowed aquamarine under the towering shadows of palm trees.

Wired as she was, Barrie found her legs were shaky. All those adrenaline crashes tonight, it’s a wonder I’m still conscious. She sat on a poolside divan to think over Rhiannon’s question. “A warning to anyone connected to Otherworld,” she finally answered. “Anyone who may have been in a position to expose things that the killer didn’t want exposed. Or anyone nosing around about it,” she added reluctantly, realizing she was talking about herself.

“That does it,” Rhiannon muttered. “I’m not letting you out of my sight until this is over.”

Barrie kept going; she couldn’t help herself. “The question is, what did Branson know?”

“To deserve to die like that...” Sailor shuddered.

“Exactly,” Barrie said. “Someone really doesn’t want the movie made. Branson was killed after his anonymous financial backing was announced, just this afternoon. Now there’s no director. No director, no movie. At least for now.”

“So, it’s a cursed movie again,” Rhiannon said.

“It sure is looking that way,” Sailor said. And despite the warmth of the soft night breeze, all three of them shivered.

Barrie stared into the depths of the pool. “It’s not a curse, it’s someone.” It was all too easy for her to call up the vision of the bloodbath inside the beach house, the director’s body, splayed and displayed. “Someone who has no fear, and no remorse, about killing...horribly.”

“It’s also someone strong enough to overpower a were,” Rhiannon pointed out.

“Or someone clever enough to take him by surprise,” Barrie said. “Whoever it was, there were no signs of forced entry, and no signs of a struggle on the first floor or the stairs. Which looks like Branson knew his killer, or felt safe with him or her. Enough to let them in, anyway.”

“What in the world were you doing there, anyway?” Sailor demanded.

“I got a text from DJ that Branson had agreed to see me and was at home tonight.”

“So, it was a setup,” Rhiannon said, anger flaring.

“No,” Barrie said. “I mean, I don’t think so. I mentioned to DJ earlier this evening that I wanted to talk to Branson about Otherworld. I think he was—well, it seemed like he was following up on that and had arranged an interview for me.” That was just a few hours ago, she marveled. It seemed like weeks. She added very reluctantly, “I guess I should tell you—I was attacked at DJ’s estate this evening.”

“What?”

“Attacked?”

It was like having a stereophonic parental explosion. Her cousins’ voices ran together, topping each other in outrage.

“You didn’t tell us?”

“And you came here anyway?”

“Was it DJ who attacked you?”

“I’m not sure,” Barrie said in a small voice. “But...it was a vampire.”

Rhiannon’s gasp chilled Barrie’s blood.

“A vampire would have the strength to spear a were and lift him up to hang him on that fireplace,” Rhiannon said. “It makes sense.”

“And he knows the scene from the movie. DJ, of all people,” Sailor said, incensed. “Did he seem guilty? When you saw him this afternoon?”

Barrie paused to think about that. “He seemed like...not like anyone I’ve ever met. It’s hard to tell what he’s thinking...or anything about him, really.”

“Vampire,” Rhiannon said.

“Actor,” Sailor said darkly.

“Whatever this is, it’s gone far enough,” Rhiannon said. “Barrie, you can’t just go off investigating on your own like this. People and Others are being killed, and it looks to me as if you were meant to find Branson’s body the way you did. A warning.”

“I agree,” Sailor said. “Someone knows you know things they don’t want you to know.”

“But if I am being warned, then I’m getting close,” Barrie said. Her cousins drew themselves up as if they were about to kill her, and she added quickly, “Yes, all right. I’m not going to do anything alone again. But if that was a warning, then someone is going to a lot of trouble that they wouldn’t be going to unless I’m close to the truth.”

“What truth is that?” Rhiannon asked.

“That Johnny Love was murdered on the set of Otherworld, and the killer is willing to kill anyone who knows about it to keep that secret, and maybe other secrets, from coming out. Anyone, including Mayo and Tiger and Branson.”

Her cousins were silent for a moment, processing that.

“Well, what did DJ tell you?” Sailor demanded.

Barrie paced in the moonlight, frustrated. “I don’t know, that’s the problem. He talks in more riddles than the Mad Hatter. Except that—he did say Johnny and Branson were talking about using the movie to break the silence and make the existence of Others generally known.”

Her cousins stared at her. “That’s pretty big,” Sailor said.

“You mean, you think Johnny’s death—and Branson’s—were political?” Rhiannon asked.

Barrie considered this. Do I think it’s political?

She was shaking her head before she even had a conscious thought. “No. I think it’s personal. It feels personal.”

“Why?” Rhiannon said, and her voice was soft, supportive and encouraging.

Barrie frowned, and let herself answer again without thinking. “Because everything about Johnny Love was personal. I don’t know about Branson. But Johnny? People had personal reactions to him, not political ones. People got obsessed with him, for heaven’s sake. He made people feel, not think.” She pounded her fist on the pillar of a trellis. “Johnny is the key. He’s the one I need to talk to.”

And then she lifted her head. “Johnny’s the one I need to talk to,” she repeated dazedly.

She stood straight. “Merlin!”